Eastern Kentucky wins College Fishing Central Division event on Detroit River

Ertel and Moberly earn $10,000, qualify for regional championship

Eastern Kentucky’s Jonas Ertel and Tyler Moberly fished green pumpkin tubes on Lake St. Clair and took home the College Fishing victory. Photo by David A. Brown. Anglers: Jonas Ertel, Tyler Moberly.

July 16, 2011 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

TRENTON, Mich. – The Eastern Kentucky team of Jonas Ertel of London, Ky., and Tyler Moberly of Berea, Ky., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Central Division event on the Detroit River Saturday with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 12 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass fishing club – $7,500 for the bass club and $2,500 for their school. The win also helped them advance to the Central Division Regional Championship.

“This was a magical day,” said Ertel, a graduated senior. “It was one of those days where everything went right. We pulled up to our first spot and caught a fish on our second cast. I lost a 5-pound smallmouth pretty early, but after that we fished clean the rest of the day. It was the only fish we lost.

“Tyler was pretty upset when we lost that 5-pounder, but I kept my head down and a positive attitude and I think that is what made the difference for us,” Ertel went on to say. “We caught about 15 keepers today. It was a lot of fun. We had four primary areas that we targeted and used tubes to catch most of our fish.”

“We came here about three weeks ago to practice,” said Moberly, a junior in business technology. “We started fishing for smallmouth first in one of the areas we found during our practice. Within 45 minutes we had caught five keepers that weighed 15 pounds.

“Shortly after that we moved to another area to look for largemouth,” Moberly continued. “We got about a 4 1/2 – pounder that we were able to cull one of our smallmouth with. The largemouth were shallow on the edge of grass beds and we were drop-shotting and using top water baits.

“It was a great day and I can’t wait to get to regionals.”

Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Central Regional Championship are:

2nd: Northwestern University – Matthew Kestufskie, Evanston, Ill., and Jimmy Morrow, Arlington Heights, Ill., (five bass, 14-1, $3,000)

3rd: Indiana University – Steven Bressler, Fremont, Ind., and Dustin Vaal, Bloomington, Ill., (five bass, 14-1, $2,000)

4th: Southern Illinois University System-Edwardsville – Brad Lemasters, Edwardsville, Ill., and Justin Skinner, Edwardsville, Ill., (five bass, 14-0, $2,000)

5th: Western Kentucky University – Andy Southard, Hanson, Ky., and Cody Napier, Beechcreek, Ky., (five bass, 13-6, $2,000)

The top five teams from each tournament qualify for the regional championship where the first-place team will win $12,500 cash for their school and $12,500 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90 horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club. The top five teams from each regional tournament advance to the national championship where the first-place team will win $25,000 for their school and $50,000 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club.

College Fishing is free to enter and FLW Outdoors provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

The next National Guard FLW College Central Division tournament is the Regional Championship scheduled for Oct. 6-8 at Lake Kinkaid in Carbondale, Ill., and is hosted by Southern Illinois University.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWCollegeFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/CollegeFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.

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